State boosts road repair money, but is it enough to fix your streets?

Towns and cities across Massachusetts will see a $45 million boost in state Chapter 90 funding next fiscal year to fix battered local roads and bridges, but don’t expect every pothole to disappear.

David Riley

Towns and cities across Massachusetts will see a $45 million boost in state Chapter 90 funding next fiscal year to fix battered local roads and bridges, but don’t expect every pothole to disappear.

Municipal officials said they are pleased with the record level of funding, but acknowledged their streets remain a long way from getting enough money for proper maintenance or backlogged repairs.

For example, Newton will see $2.3 million under the $200 million road funding bill that Gov. Deval Patrick signed this week, roughly enough to pave an extra two miles of streets, said Bob Rooney, the city’s chief operating officer.

But after analyzing street conditions last year, the city found it needs closer to $8 million a year to keep up with needed repairs, Rooney said. Close to 45 percent of Newton’s roads are in poor condition, he said.

“This is more than we’ve ever gotten from a Chapter 90 distribution, and we’re very grateful for that,” Rooney said.

However, “we are always fighting the other three-quarters of our need,” he said.

Like other communities, Newton also relies on local revenues and other sources, such as Community Development Block Grants, to fund work above and beyond Chapter 90.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association carried out a survey that found its member cities and towns said they have road repairs totaling nearly $400 million a year. The association had called on lawmakers and the governor to allocate $300 million for Chapter 90 next fiscal year.

Geoff Beckwith, the association’s executive director, said he is still pleased with the increase towns will receive under the bill that passed. He said he also is glad lawmakers moved to wrap up the legislation by an April 1 deadline to notify towns about funding in time for construction season.

But looking forward, the municipal group is pressing state leaders to fund Chapter 90 at $300 million a year as part of a broader, three-year bond bill for transportation projects, Beckwith said.

Chapter 90 is typically part of a longer-term transportation bond package. The bill that passed last week is essentially a bridge between the last major funding bill and the next, which has yet to be filed.

Funding for the program has been erratic. In 2000, Chapter 90 dropped from $150 million a year to $100 million, where it stayed until 2005, when funding climbed back up to $120 million, according to the Massachusetts Infrastructure Investment Coalition.

Most towns and cities saw an increase in Chapter 90 money last year, too, but a considerably smaller one. Beckwith said with the latest bill, he hopes the program has reached “a turning point,” noting that local governments maintain nearly 90 percent of the state’s roads.

“They need to have an adequate level of resources to be able to maintain that,” Beckwith said.

Patrick’s administration said the $200 million bill is a record high and will create construction jobs, improve transportation and public safety, and encourage economic development.

“Our administration understands the importance and value of investing in our roads and bridges,” Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said in a statement. “Though we inherited significant deferred maintenance from previous administrations, our continued funding will improve this infrastructure for cities and towns across the commonwealth.”

The backlog of maintenance is significant indeed.

In 2007, the state Transportation Finance Commission reported that Massachusetts faces a shortfall of $15 billion to $19 billion over the next 20 years just to maintain existing road and rail infrastructure.

Patrick’s administration says it’s making a dent. Largely thanks to federal stimulus funding, the governor’s office said Massachusetts spent nearly $965 million on road and bridge projects in fiscal 2010, plus another $1.2 billion slated for the current fiscal year. But that work extends well beyond local roads.

Sudbury Public Works Director Bill Place called the forthcoming increase in Chapter 90 a “shot in the arm.”

“The governor finally realized that the roads aren’t holding up with the money they were giving us,” he said. “All you have to do is look at the potholes.”

Yet Place said the Mass. Municipal Association’s request for $300 million would come closer to meeting actual need.

In Burlington, Public Works Superintendent John Sanchez said his town has been losing ground on paving recently because of the rising cost of asphalt, which is tied to ever-climbing oil prices.

The additional funding that Burlington will see – an increase of about $261,000 – will likely mean the town can return to the amount of work it previously did, he said.

“This is great,” Sanchez said. “Obviously all of us are going to say the same thing: The more money, the more we can get done.”

North Andover Public Works Director Bruce Thibodeau said he has a slate of road projects up for votes at Town Meeting in May. He said he mainly taps Chapter 90 money for major roadwork and town funding for subdivisions and other less-trafficked streets.

“I don’t know if you’d ever keep up completely with the needs,” he said of the boost in funding, “but at least we’re able to do a little bit better of a job on the side roads that get neglected.”

In Hopkinton, Public Works Director John Westerling said he is proposing about $800,000 worth of roadwork, paid for through a combination of state aid and the town’s general fund.

Projects will range from sealing cracks to full resurfacing. The department chooses projects based on inspections of road conditions and with the help of a software program that tabulates priorities.

Spending about $800,000 a year is just enough to maintain pavement conditions in town without much overall improvement, he said.

“We would love to be able to put in a million dollars a year,” Westerling said. “We would love to put in more than that. But we’re grateful for the resources that are coming from the state to be able to put in the work we are doing.”

(David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@wickedlocal.com.)

Downloads:

How much Chapter 90 money is your town getting? Compare to past years too: Download spreadsheet here

Is your town or city in the top 25 getting the most money? The top 25 with the most roads to maintain? Download spreadsheet here